California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom is not on the ballot in 2024 — not yet, at least — but Democrat governance is, and Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking both to task early this week.
Along with his California campaign stops Monday and Tuesday, DeSantis released an ad condemning Newsom and Democrat leadership for their policy failures and contrasting those with DeSantis' successes in Florida.
"The debate is already settled," the DeSantis War Room Twitter account tweeted Monday morning, sharing the new campaign ad. "California's liberal governance is a disaster. @RonDeSantis' conservative policies have Florida thriving, and would do so for the nation."
DeSantis and Newsom have gone back and forth like campaign rivals of late, with Newsom picking up his national exposure and long attempting to challenge DeSantis as the nation's leading governor.
Newsom has not gotten in the race against Democrat President Joe Biden, but it has not stopped DeSantis from challenging him to "stop pussyfooting around" on 2024.
"Are you going to throw your hat in the ring and challenge Joe?" DeSantis said last week. "Are you going to get in and do it, or are you just going to sit on the sidelines and chirp?
"Why don't you throw your hat in the ring, and then we'll go ahead and talk about what's happening."
The DeSantis campaign ad showed that California is losing, and Florida and DeSantis are winning.
"The American people as a whole have voted with their feet when you compare Florida and California," DeSantis said in the ad, a line he has shared on Newsmax in past interviews.
The ad shows TV news clips detailing the mass exodus of voters and businesses from Newsom's California — often directly to large, successful red states like Texas and Florida.
California's "homeless crisis," "rising crime," drug abuse, violence, dirty streets ("public defecation and urination"), and population decline were all mentioned by TV news reports.
"We have had a great experiment in governing philosophy," DeSantis continued in the ad. "We've witnessed a great American exodus from states governed by leftist politicians.
"This is a result of better governance in states like Florida. It is a result of poor governance in these left-wing states. That's why people are moving."
DeSantis' campaign is taking the stump in California on Monday and Tuesday.
"He's got huge problems in his state — I mean, like, huge problems in his state," DeSantis said of Newsom. "Yet with all those problems, he has a real serious fixation on the state of Florida. I think it's just bizarre."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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